Monday, 12 June 2017

Blog 20.17 #18: Why I'll NEVER Vote for Corbyn (but I will)

Clickbait title, obvs.
I love Jezza. But I now feel like
we need to make the debate about the many, the ‘us’, not just for this Election
but the future of a supportive society.

If you checked out my other Blog, you’ll know I have a shaky
history with the Labour Party.

But I’m still buzzing from Thursday night.

If you caught me sometime in the last week, on a gloomy
day I’d had said even if May increases her majority by a tiny amount, she’s
lost. Because she called this whole faff
to prove she was right, and anything but a landslide looks like failure. On a gloomier day, I’d have said we’re
looking at a Tory Landslide.

At the start of the campaigning I said I wasn’t going to
put a Vote Labour sign in the window (only anti-Tory sentiments). On Friday, I joined the Labour Party, one of
150,000 bringing the number up to 800,000, the biggest political membership in
Europe.

Highlights from this election have been an emotional
rollercoaster. Corbyn’s speech in York
in May was inspiring, a roaring and fiery man far from the wet lettuce the
media portrayed him as. We grabbed the
cut-out Dalek that lives in our house (left by housemates long gone), slapped a
printed-off image of May’s face upon its head and presented #DalekMay to the
world. Dozens of people stopped to get
photos with her.

Next stop was Halifax, a town on the knife-edge of
Tory/Labour marginals. Outside the
launch of the Manifesto we, and a plucky small band of protestors, chanted
alongside Dalek May. If anything, just
to irritate them inside. Against the gigantic
brickwork of a converted old mill building, we seemed very small at this stage
in the campaign trial. David and
Goliath-eque some might say. That could
bode well.

We tracked the Real May to York University, and in the
drizzling rain, with a tune 2nd in the pop charts being our
soundtrack, we popped away whilst inside May refused to debate, and white men
refused to not kill millions.

But, for all, this, hopes felt low. Even as we sat down to watch the results slide
onto infographics on the BBC, we worried even the stronghold of York Central
could go Blue.

As it stands, it was a cracking night. Backed by booze, good jokes, good friends and
result-after-result where Labour grabbed Tory seats and baddies like Rudd
seated over 300 seats. It felt, for the
first time since those early demos against fees in 2010, like I was part of
something. It felt like finally winning,
something the left hasn’t had for a long, long time.

But this: This was the highlight. I love my friends:

So I joined Labour the next day, because I want to keep
that momentum. But also because I
watched an excellent video from Akala,
but disagreed with a few points. Akala
said he wasn’t voting for the Labour Party, he was voting for Corbyn. He wasn’t alone, but Corbyn has always placed
faith in the Party, not the personalities.
He wants to create a movement, not a cult of personality. I’ve met really committed activists, trade
unionists and agitators these last few weeks canvassing, the real heart of the
party.

The Blairities might still be around, eating their humble
pies, but that’s why I’ve joined to pressure them to keep the socialist ideals
in the manifesto, and keep them in line.
And finally, Akala said he didn’t even know the name of the person
standing in his constituency, but Rachael Maskell in York Central has been
tirelessly fighting for the NHS and refugee rights. More women and disabled
people people from ethnic minority groups have become MPs than ever before. Even a MP of Palestinian decent was elected (admittedly
for the Liberal Democrats).

If Anarchism has taught me anything, it’s to kill your
idols, or at the last not put them on pedestals. I love Jezza, but he’s far from perfect. He’s also not young, and although we have
plenty more years out of him yet, we need to look at the Party being a social movement
dictated by the working class, by women, by minorities for the benefit of all
society. So I’m joined to shift away
from the central aspect of Jezza and onto the Party as an 800,000-strong group
with 40% of the country voting for it.

But I’ll still sing VOTE FOR JEREMY CORBYN to the tune of
Seven Nation Army. Obvs.